Hundreds join funeral procession for Al Jazeera reporter Mohamed Qreiqeh

Hundreds of mourners gathered in Gaza City on Monday for the funeral procession of Al Jazeera correspondent Mohamed Qreiqeh, who was killed in an Israeli strike in the territory.

Israel's military targeted Qreiqeh with an airstrike Sunday, killing him, another network journalist and at least six other people, all of whom were sheltering outside Gaza City's largest hospital complex.

Journalists were among those who gathered to mourn Qureiqeh and their colleagues as their bodies lay wrapped in white sheets at Gaza City's Shifa Hospital complex.

Officials at Shifa Hospital said those killed included Al Jazeera correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohamed Qreiqeh. The strike also killed four other journalists and two different people, hospital administrative director Rami Mohanna told The Associated Press. The strike also damaged the entrance to the hospital complex's emergency building.

Both Israel and hospital officials in Gaza City confirmed the deaths, which press advocates described as retribution against those documenting the war in Gaza. Israel's military later Sunday described al-Sharif as the leader of a Hamas cell — an allegation that Al Jazeera and al-Sharif had previously dismissed as baseless.

The incident marked the first time during the war that Israel's military had swiftly claimed responsibility after a journalist was killed in a strike.

It came less than a year after Israeli army officials first accused al-Sharif and other Al Jazeera journalists of being members of the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad. In a July 24 video, Israel's army spokesperson Avichay Adraee attacked Al Jazeera and accused al-Sharif of being part of Hamas' military wing.